Mountains in Oklahoma, Red sky at night

In my travels over the past two days I got to see some new places. Although I have made the trip to Decatur several times I had never traveled from Decatur to Elk City, OK. It was pretty easy as far as directions were concerned. I just took a right in Vernon, TX and followed the road north for a hundred miles or so. Once I crossed the Red River I knew I was headed in the right direction.


Somewhere north of Altus, OK I began to see mountains in the distance. I was a little surprised. I had not expected, judging from the terrain I had been seeing in my travels across the western part of the state, to see anything more than some small hills. But these were granite mountains. I suppose that is where the town of Granite, Ok got its name since the town snuggles up to one of the unusual formations. Between Granite and Blair there is even a State Park called Quartz Mountain State Park. I was told by the ladies I did reviews for that it is quite beautiful. There is a resort there that is often used for wedding because of the mountains and the lake setting. I will have to take Mama and go see for ourselves sometime.

As we were walking last night I took a picture of the sky. It was more of a pink sky at night but it was beautiful. One of the things I missed most about Texas as we were living in the north was the expanse of sky and sunsets that filled the entirety of the horizon. Don’t get me wrong there were beautiful sunsets in Missouri, West Virginia and New Jersey and we took time to enjoy as many as we could. But here on the plains of Texas there is a completely unobstructed view of the horizon in every direction. Some people see the area here as plain, unattractive and barren but there is plenty of beauty to be seen and a bigger canvas for God every morning and evening to paint the sunrises and sunsets.

I miss the smell of wet leaves and big oaks on the hillsides of our farm in West Virginia. I miss the clear skies and being able to see the Milky Way on a cold night as we snuggled together on the top of the tallest hill on our farm there. I miss running the dogs after foxes and raccoons in the cold Missouri nights. I can’t think of anything I miss about New Jersey in that way, but I am sure there is something.

Here the open sky seems to make up for some of the losses of the things I miss elsewhere – and it is a twice daily event to enjoy.